14:17 After Abram 3 returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram 4 in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley). 5 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem 6 brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) 7
14:1 At that time 8 Amraphel king of Shinar, 9 Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations 10
25:1 Abraham had taken 13 another 14 wife, named Keturah.
63:9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. 17
The messenger sent from his very presence 18 delivered them.
In his love and mercy he protected 19 them;
he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. 20
1 tn Heb “silver.”
2 tn Heb “and water for silver give to me so that I may drink.”
3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 sn The King’s Valley is possibly a reference to what came to be known later as the Kidron Valley.
6 sn Salem is traditionally identified as the Jebusite stronghold of old Jerusalem. Accordingly, there has been much speculation about its king. Though some have identified him with the preincarnate Christ or with Noah’s son Shem, it is far more likely that Melchizedek was a Canaanite royal priest whom God used to renew the promise of the blessing to Abram, perhaps because Abram considered Melchizedek his spiritual superior. But Melchizedek remains an enigma. In a book filled with genealogical records he appears on the scene without a genealogy and then disappears from the narrative. In Psalm 110 the
7 tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause significantly identifies Melchizedek as a priest as well as a king.
8 tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi) followed by “in the days of.”
9 sn Shinar (also in v. 9) is the region of Babylonia.
10 tn Or “king of Goyim.” The Hebrew term גּוֹיִם (goyim) means “nations,” but a number of modern translations merely transliterate the Hebrew (cf. NEB “Goyim”; NIV, NRSV “Goiim”).
11 sn God blessed Isaac. The Hebrew verb “bless” in this passage must include all the gifts that God granted to Isaac. But fertility was not one of them, at least not for twenty years, because Rebekah was barren as well (see v. 21).
12 sn Beer Lahai Roi. See the note on this place name in Gen 24:62.
13 tn Or “took.”
14 tn Heb “And Abraham added and took.”
15 tn The imperative after the jussive indicates purpose here.
16 tn The word “all” has been supplied in the translation because the Hebrew verb translated “wash” and the pronominal suffix on the word “feet” are plural, referring to all three of the visitors.
17 tn Heb “in all their distress, there was distress to him” (reading לוֹ [lo] with the margin/Qere).
18 tn Heb “the messenger [or “angel”] of his face”; NIV “the angel of his presence.”
19 tn Or “redeemed” (KJV, NAB, NIV), or “delivered.”
20 tn Heb “all the days of antiquity”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “days of old.”
21 tn Heb “After glory has he sent me” (similar KJV, NASB). What is clearly in view is the role of Zechariah who, by faithful proclamation of the message, will glorify the
22 tn Heb “gate” (בָּבָה, bavah) of the eye, that is, pupil. The rendering of this term by KJV as “apple” has created a well-known idiom in the English language, “the apple of his eye” (so ASV, NIV). The pupil is one of the most vulnerable and valuable parts of the body, so for Judah to be considered the “pupil” of the
23 tc A scribal emendation (tiqqun sopherim) has apparently altered an original “my eye” to “his eye” in order to allow the prophet to be the speaker throughout vv. 8-9. This alleviates the problem of the
24 tn Grk “answering, the king will say to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.
25 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
26 tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). In this context Jesus is ultimately speaking of his “followers” (whether men or women, adults or children), but the familial connotation of “brothers and sisters” is also important to retain here.
27 tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.
28 tn The double vocative suggests emotion.
29 sn Persecuting me. To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus.